Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Ah, I adore color. It's one of my favorite things about using polymer. And I especially love the way Lindly Haunani leads you to find your own color-way, exploring options along the way. For me, there is something that just clicks in the way she presents color. Step by interesting step, Lindly helped us evaluate tones, hues, and saturations, until each person in the 2-day workshop had developed a rainbow palette that was a personal "fit."

We started by choosing photos from magazines that appealed to us and making them into a collage. Although the pile of pictures was the same for everyone, people naturally gravitated in different directions, and the collages were all distinct and unique. Here's a snapshot from mine.

Next, Lindly helped each of us determine the appropriate primaries for making our own personal rainbow Skinner blend. It was fun to see how different the various rainbows were - and everyone seemed pleased with their results.

We developed a few canes based on our blends, and then used those canes to create beads. The pile of beads to the left are some of mine.

This next photo shows some of my beads laid on top of my collage. How's that for a match!!

Finally, we fashioned the beads into a fun bracelet.

One of the things I found especially wonderful and intriguing about this class is that the process can be used over and over again and, depending on the season or my mood, my color choices will shift and alter a bit. Yet, I know that given a collection of items based on multiple personal collages (mine), there would be a color way that would stand out as being just "me." How lovely!

Sunday, July 19, 2015

After having spent 2 days with Eugena Topina making those amazingly versatile stamping tools, I was pleased to have a second class with her. Due to personal circumstances, one of the scheduled presenters was unable to attend, and Eugena graciously offered to teach a class to fill that void. I'm delighted she did! This class was a brand new one for Eugena, and took us off on an adventure with organic shapes and textures. I've not done much work with organic shapes, so this class really helped me try something new. Keep an eye on her website: http://www.eugenascreations.com/ I'm sure she'll have a new tutorial for this process soon. It's really fun and creative!We started with white clay, though we could have used colors if we wished. Knowing we would be colorizing things later was a good reason to stay with pale colors or white, especially for our initial experience with the process. Eugena guided us through shape formation and introduced us to a myriad of texturing techniques. Every design and texture in the pieces you see here was made by hand, following methods that Eugena has developed. Most of them used everyday tools or items that would be easy to find. Eugena is very imaginative. The results were amazing and the whole process was a lot of fun!

After making several of the rounded shapes, and playing with various texture concepts, we experimented and created some shapes of our own.

On the second day of class, we dove into colorizing our pieces. As you can see in the last 2 photos here, I tried some organic shapes of my own and had a grand time with colors! Thank you, Eugena, for a great class!

Friday, July 17, 2015

I've just returned from Laurel, Maryland, where I attended Master Class Camp 2015. Camp is composed of a series of two-day workshops with some outstanding polymer artists as instructors. I was fortunate to take classes from both Eugena Topina and Lindly Haunani. I had a great time, learned much, stretched my thinking, and pushed beyond my comfort zone a bit. I'll be posting samples of my work from their classes over the next few days.

The first class I took was with Eugena Topina. She has some excellent tutorials available online, and I was delighted to have this opportunity to meet and work with her. This class focused on the development of a "stamping" tool. It was the first time I've taken a workshop for the development and design of a tool, and I found the idea - and the process - fascinating. Since this class is also available as a tutorial, I will not go into detail on how the stamping tools were developed. Here, I have photos of some of the stamping tools I developed in class with an example of an application possible with the tool. I definitely plan on making more of these tools and using them in my creations.

To the left is a piece using one of the tools I made and demonstrating the mokume gane technique. Below are two additional examples of tools used to create unique designs.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Here's a fun little necklace I just strung together. I was playing with a multi-striped cane and got caught up in making these little round beads. I should have saved one so I could show you that the stripes meet in the center on each side of the rounded beads. This means they could be used on their sides, too. I'll have to give something a try and show you at some future date. The 3mm malachite rounds match one of the stripes perfectly, and the little silver heishi between the beads add just a touch of shine.

Right now, I'm getting things together for a trip next week to Baltimore for the Polymer Master Class Camp 2015. Six days of classes with outstanding polymer instructors. Nothing to do but learn and play and experiment. Really looking forward to it! More when I get back.

About Me

Art and creativity are an important part of my life. I love making things - and I love to teach. I feel so fortunate to have found mediums which allow me to do both! I enjoy working in beadweaving, PMC, polymer and porcelain, though recently polymer and beadweaving have "taken over" my time and attention.
If you have questions or would like to contact me, drop me a line: kyfoss@comcast.net I'd love to hear from you.

Upcoming Workshops & Classes

My upcoming classes are listed on the Workshops and Classes page.

Bead-weaving classes, taught at Nature's Art (The Dinosaur Place) in Montville are posted to the workshop page.

Check them out!! New classes have been listed for Meiklem's, and are now posted through April. Polymer classes through April at Thistlebeads have also just been listed. Polymer classes are offered at Meiklem's in Bozrah, CT, and at Thistlebeads in Niantic, CT. Come join us for some great claying fun! Questions? Contact me at: kyfoss@comcast.net.